Top 10 Civil Liberties News Stories of the Week - August 4, 2006 Edition

FDA Decided to Delay Emergency Contraception in 2004 Before Reviewing Data

Former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan.

Image courtesy of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In a sworn statement in June, Dr. John Jenkins, director of the FDA's Office of New Drugs, said he learned in early 2004 that then-FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan had decided against approval before the staff could complete their analysis.

Plan B was rejected in May 2004, shortly after McClellan left the agency ...

Dr. Florence Houn said she was also told that in January by Deputy Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock that Plan B needed to be rejected "to appease the administration's constituents" but that it could be approved later.

• U.N. Human Rights Committee Responds to Shadow Report, Issues Observations
• Emergency Contraception May Soon Be Available Without Prescription
• Good Samaritans Indicted for Taking Dying Immigrants to Doctor
• Victory Over Government-Mandated Public School Segregation
• New Statistics on Sexual Violence in U.S. Prisons
• U.S. Government Interrogates Visiting Foreign Scholars Regarding Political Views
• ACLU: Government Overcensored Documents in PATRIOT Act Case
• FDA Decided to Delay Emergency Contraception in 2004 Before Reviewing Data
• Louisiana Sheriff Threatens to Arrest Citizens with Ethnic Hairstyles
• "In God We Trust" Turns 50